Local Government Act brings Mayoral Office into Disrepute February 25, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : London , trackbackThe Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has been suspended for likening an Evening Standard reporter to a concentration camp guard. Certainly this was not a very nice thing to say, especially given that the bloke concerned is Jewish, and Ken’s handled it all quite badly. But now, an unknown quango has been able to suspend him for bringing the office of Mayor into disrepute.
I voted for Ken and although I don’t always think much of his outbursts, he’s done a lot for London and is at least not ruled by spin doctors. Does this mean that my vote, and that of millions of other Londoners, means nothing? What sort of democracy is this?
The court that did this, the Adjudication Panel for England is an ‘independent judicial Tribunal which was established by Part III, Chapter IV of the Local Government Act 2000 to hear and adjudicate on matters concerning the conduct of local authority members.’ In other words, when the Labour Government set up devolution in London, it didn’t really trust those authorities to police themselves in the way Parliament does, and made sure there was a conduct monitor set up to make sure that naughty local authorities didn’t misbehave.
Ken’s conduct no more calls the office of Mayor into disrepute than Prescott’s thuggery undermines the office of Deputy Prime Minister or Blunkett’s shananigans harmed the office of Home Secretary. It doesn’t do much for his personal reputation, but he’s always been like this and we voted for him in spite of, or perhaps because of, his unwillingness to be always politically correct and on message.
It is the ruling of the Adjudication Panel which brings the office into disrepute. It shows that the office, and the vote of Londoners, can be swept away by an unaccountable quango. It shows that the role has little power, little mana.
Ken has an opportunity to appeal against this ruling, but it is the law itself that is at fault, not the interpretation of it by the tribunal. This is a political matter, not a legal one, and shows that the Government respects neither the office of the Mayor of London, nor it’s people.
Perhaps it is the Government which should be suspended for a month.
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